Adverbal objective genitive and its counterparts in nominal constructions: The case of possessives

Abstract

In the present paper, valency properties of Czech nouns derived from verbs with an object expressed by prepositionless genitive (GenAdverb) are studied. Special attention is paid to the possibility of the participant with an object function to be expressed by a possessive adjective or a possessive pronoun (Adjposs / Pronposs), when it modifies the derived noun.

Usage of Adjposs / Pronposs (← GenAdverb) was verified in data of the Czech National Corpus; the form was found with eleven nouns derived from verbs by productive means (e.g. zanechání studia ‘quitting study-Gen.Sg’, i.e. ‘quitting one’s studies’ // jeho zanechání ‘it-Poss quitting’, i.e. ‘its quitting’) and with two nouns derived from verbs by non-productive means (e.g. dotyk volantu ‘touch wheel-Gen.Sg’, i.e. touch of wheel // jeho dotyk ‘it-Poss touch’, i.e. ‘its touch’). We suppose that the alternation GenAdnom // Adjposs / Pronposs (← GenAdverb) is used in Czech as an analogy to the more frequent alternation GenAdnom // Adjposs / Pronposs

Keywords

• adverbal
• objective
• genitive
• counterparts
• nominal
• constructions
• case
• possessives